Learn Korean
Hangul was designed, on purpose, to be learned quickly, and it is the one writing system where that claim holds. Twenty-four letters, shaped to hint at what the mouth is doing, packed into square syllable blocks. iLexiBox starts there and stays there until the blocks read themselves, because everything else in Korean gets easier once the script has stopped costing you attention.
Start at hangul
The Korean on-ramp is written by hand, not generated, and it is 467 cards long. Every card is spoken in a recorded Korean voice, and what you get right is scheduled for review rather than shown again at random.
- 24jamo letters
- 10digits
- 13pronunciation rules
- 300core words
- 60everyday phrases
- 60sentences
Three of the pronunciation cards, exactly as the on-ramp teaches them:
- 한글 — letters are not written in a line — they stack into square syllable blocks: ㅎ + ㅏ + ㄴ = 한한국 — Korea
- ㅋ ㅌ ㅍ ㅊ — the extra stroke means an extra puff of air — hold a hand to your mouth and feel it커피 — coffee
- ㄲ ㄸ ㅃ ㅆ ㅉ — a doubled letter is TENSE: no puff of air, throat tight, said sharply꽃 — flower
Your first Korean phrases
The first phrase and sentence cards of the on-ramp, each spoken in a recorded voice:
- 만나서 반갑습니다 man-na-seo ban-gap-seum-ni-da — nice to meet you
- 잘 지내세요? jal ji-nae-se-yo — how are you?
- 이름이 뭐예요? i-reu-mi mwo-ye-yo — what is your name?
- 저는 학생이에요. jeo-neun hak-saeng-i-e-yo — I am a student.
- 저는 미국 사람이에요. jeo-neun mi-guk sa-ra-mi-e-yo — I am American.
Then material that does not run out
Above the on-ramp sit the practice path (A1 to C2), Make a text at your level and the album: more than 2,700 photographs, each captioned and spoken in Korean. Korean has practice and tools, not lessons — the only course on iLexiBox is the full English course (how each part works).
What Korean actually costs a beginner
The block is the first adjustment: letters are not written in a line, they are stacked into a syllable, so ㅎ, ㅏ and ㄴ become 한. After that come two distinctions English does not make. An added stroke means an added puff of air, so ㅋ is not ㄱ. A doubled letter is tense — no puff at all, throat tight, said sharply. Plain, aspirated and tense are three different consonants and three different words, and no spelling conveys the difference, so each one is a card with a recorded Korean voice.
The full English course, A1–C1 →